Battle Lines
by Thunder-Nari
Summary: an anti-mutant group is rising and still the Brotherhood, Acolytes and X-Men are divided. Can the fall of a leader unit them? Scott's POV. Character death. One shot


Disclaimer: I'm always forgetting these things…*sigh* I do not own X-men or any of the characters in this story, Marvel and WB does.

Battle Lines

Nari

I can't stop the cry that is nearly torn out of my throat at the sudden pain that I can feel ripping through me. Pain the likes of which I have nothing to compare to. Even when my powers first started to manifest, giving me massive migraines, it was nothing like what I'm feeling now. Like someone's fired off every single one of my pain receptors at once. I can't help another cry of pain, although this time it is much more like a gurgle and I choke slightly on the blood in my mouth. 

The pain lessens slightly, maybe I'm going into shock, maybe I'm dieing. Or maybe I got lucky and it's not really as bad as I thought. That the first flash of pain didn't really indicate just how badly I've managed to get hurt this time. But if that's true then why is everything around me so dark? I'm already dead and this is what the after life really is? Endless darkness and pain.  Too bad I can't tell everyone who'd like to kill themselves that, it'd make them think twice. 

Then I realize what it really is. I have my eyes clenched shut. Either by instinct to keep me from killing everyone around me or simply because I don't want to see the earth that I know is crushing most of my body. It doesn't matter which, I keep my eyes closed anyway and try to ignore the pain that I can still feel through dulled senses. Concentrate on breathing, anything but the pain. 

#

It started with the emergence a group called the FOH, the Friends of Humanity. When the Professor called us to the War Room the first time for a briefing on them and told us the name I couldn't believe it. Snorted in my head in disgust.  That was the first time, now I absolutely loathed that name and you could hear it everywhere. On TV, on picket signs, in conversations on the street or in school. The FOH were rallying against mutants and doing a damn good job of it. 

Two months after the first FOH attack on mutants and the streets were now a highly dangerous place. Hell, it was a risk to walk outside your door if you were a mutant. We didn't go to school, to movies, shopping, it had all been taken from us out of fear for our lives. The only time we braved the streets was when we went out as the X-Men to rescue some mutant or other from being captured or killed by the FOH.  

And the stupidest part about all of this? Even while we're fighting for our own lives and for the lives of others, the X-Men, the Brotherhood and the Acolytes are still divided. Still fighting our petty battles against each other like they're the most important thing in the world, when really, they mean absolutely nothing.  All because Magneto and Xavier can't agree on who's dream to follow. At the moment I really don't think it matters. Sometimes I found myself wondering if it ever truly did. But I digress, lets start at the beginning when the FOH first made their appearance. 

I don't mean the first attack, no they made their appearance far before then. In politics, with a man named Graydon Creed. It's a name that will make any mutant shudder now. At the time though it was just another name of just another political figure. Nobody would ever have guessed what he would bring down upon us mutants. He made speeches against mutants and got some support, not enough for us to take any real notice. The Professor kept an eye on him, had Logan dig around some for anything that could be found. That wasn't much. It didn't bother anyone and we went on with our lives.

Until a year after his first appearance when he formed the group The Friends of Humanity and he became even more of a public figure. He gained support, he knew how to draw people to him. At first we thought that no one would listen to him, or at least not enough to make any real difference. We couldn't have been more wrong. Mutants like Magneto drove their fear and the humans flocked to Graydon like he would be their savior. That's probably exactly what they thought. 

Now the Professor took notice. Began to make his own speeches, tried to get the public back on our side. Like they were ever there in the first place. But old arguments fell on death ears. They didn't want to listen to him preach about us living in peace and making the world a better place because of it. We had acted to late, believing that the greater good of humanity would triumph. 

We were naïve. No, the Professor was naïve and we just blindly followed him.  Graydon had played on their fears, told them mutants were here to take over, Magneto was proof of that. The people bought into that. And why shouldn't they? Had we really given them much reason to think otherwise? 

Right, we're the X-Men, supposed to protect humanity. Yet what do we do? We fight with the Brotherhood. What about the things that really matter? What about the wars, what about September 11, where were we then? Fighting the Brotherhood. Fighting our own petty battles like they would make a difference. Idiots, all of us. Too caught up in our own lives to see the bigger picture. If we were going to fight for humanity we should have joined in the fights that mattered. 

I talked to the Professor about it once or twice. Asked him how we could make a difference by fighting, when all that ever really accomplished was for people to fear us more when we used our powers. Graydon had the right idea though, get the people on his side by talking to them. Told the Professor that what we should be training for is to get someone onto the senate. Of course he didn't agree. Said that the only way to get people to see that they didn't need to fear us was to prove it by protecting them. I didn't get it and I still don't. How can we prove to them that we're protecting them when we keep ourselves hidden? Another thing I asked him about. Why keep ourselves hidden? He said that they simply weren't ready to face the truth that we exist yet, that they would be afraid of us and persecute us. How can we expect them to trust us when we never trusted them? Too many questions, without answers. 

He was right though. They were afraid of us and they did persecute us. Graydon only brought home to them what they had always expected. We were there to replace them. He was going to stop that from happening, all they had to do was join him. So they did, in masses. The FOH became huge; it's numbers in the thousands. Lord knows how big it's gotten now. Political rallies led to publicly accepted mutant persecution. That will eventually lead to mutant hunts. 

Two months ago a mutant, no more than fourteen, was attacked and beaten to death by a small band of FOH supporters. They were tried and got off with five years prison. It wouldn't surprise me if months from now they started giving out medals to those who could bring down a dangerous mutant. And **still **we continued to fight among ourselves. 

Magneto insistent that the only way for mutants to survive was to take out the humans. Xavier insistent that we could both live together in peace. Both willing to do anything to accomplish their dream. The emergence of the FOH only made the battles between us worse. Magneto began to attack the humans more openly, more frequently. We tried our best to keep him from doing too much harm.  

That's how we end up here. In yet another pointless battle when really the only way we'll ever survive in this new world is to join together. Am I the only one that sees this? How can we be expected to live peacefully with humans if we can't even live with each other? 

The Brotherhood and Acolytes faced off against the X-Men, I'm sure this is making us look very trustworthy to the humans as we tear up the streets of Bayville yet again. I say that in the most literal meaning. Avalanche is here and it's because of him that I'm now buried under rock and earth. 

When we first started fighting against the Brotherhood it was almost like a game. Nobody ever got seriously hurt because nobody wanted that. We could have, should have, been friends. Worked together to turn the future away from what it was now. I was just as petty as the rest though. Never truly thought about the consequences of my stupid teenage rivalry with Alvers. Lance. I realize now though, we should have been working together. Would that have been enough to prevent the world that we live in now, a world that can only get worse for us? Is it too late to change that by working with each other now?

The world is still dark around me as I keep my eyes clenched shut. The sounds of battle seemed to have stopped. Whether that's because I can no longer hear or the others have actually stopped fighting, I don't know. I can't really find the energy to care anymore. 

Someone's next to me now, I can feel strong hands on me; dimly make out the sound of someone kneeling next to me. Wonder briefly who it is before I need to concentrate on taking my next breath. I wonder how many more I'll be able to take before it becomes too hard. At least I can't feel the pain anymore. 

"Summers? Scott?" 

And I can hardly believe it. Lance is kneeling next to me, holding me, from the sound of his voice crying or at least on the verge of it. This is how it should be. All of us together, caring about each other, protecting each other. Surviving together. I wish I could say something. Tell them what's in my head like I never had the courage to before because it would have been going against the Professor. I don't care about that anymore though; I just don't want anyone else to get hurt by someone they should be fighting with not against.

I open my mouth to try and speak but all that comes out is a gurgle and I can feel warm blood as it drips down the side of my face, can taste the sharp tang of it in my mouth and wonder how I missed it before. Lance holds me tighter and tells me how sorry he is, what a fool he was. I wish I could tell him that it's okay, we were all fools. 

I try to smile at him, try to offer at least some comfort. Freeze when I realize that I've stopped breathing. I open my eyes, carefully slowly and look down at Lance still with his hold on my body while Jean kneels next to us, crying. The battle has stopped as I thought. X-Men, Brotherhood and Acolytes are gathered around me, none of them looking to happy. There are looks of sorrow and regret. None of them had wanted this to happen. Maybe now they will all understand. Maybe now the Professor and Magneto will stop drawing battle lines in the sand. 

For a moment, I'm filled with hope. Hope that the future will maybe be better for them. It doesn't matter that it cost my life to make them see it. I'd give anything to protect them, all of them. Then Magneto comes and all hope is dashed as he takes his teams and they follow him without complaint or question. Like I once did with Xavier, like the rest of the X-Men do now. 

Divided they will fall. Perhaps not for some time but they can not hope to win against the FOH and make peace with the humans when they can not make peace among themselves. It's something that I don't wish to see and nothing that I can change so I shake my head and walk away. Hopefully they will realize they're mistakes before the FOH does but somehow I have my doubts.


End file.
